Mom in train crash dies 10 days after 2 daughters

Condition critical since she attempted to race locomotive

Her two daughters died almost instantly, but the mother who tried to race a freight train in northwest Indiana held on for 10 days before she died on Tuesday.

"She fought. she really did," family friend Norma Bazan said. "In my heart, I was hoping she would survive for the boys. We all had hope."

Edie Bolanos, 32, of Hammond died shortly after 2 a.m. at Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, where she had been in critical condition since the Sept. 1 crash. She was driving a mini-van carrying her four children when it was struck by two trains at a railroad crossing.

Crystal, 11, and Anahi Bolanos, 8, were killed in the collision, which took place near the Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District's Hammond station. Her two sons, ages 3 and 13, were treated for their injuries at the University of Chicago Comer Children's Hospital and released.

"They're traumatized," said Bazan, who has known the family for almost a decade. "They just need time to recuperate. It's going to be hard, but they're adjusting little by little."

Video footage of the crash shows a 1999 Mercury Villager moving at a high rate of speed through the station's parking lot alongside an eastbound freight train. The video showed the van turn south onto the Johnson Avenue crossing before it was struck by a westbound train, then by the eastbound train.

Both freight trains were operated by CSX Corp. of Florida, and the crash took place on the CSX rail line, not far from the South Shore Line station.

Friends and family have been raising money for the girls' funeral, which was held last weekend. They have collected more than $5,600 from several fundraisers, but they now need more money to bury the mother.

Bolanos and her fiance, Daniel Rodriguez, were raising the four children together, although he was only the father of the youngest boy, Bazan said. Her son Leon, 13, has been staying with his grandmother while Daniel, 3, is living with his father, she said. They could not bear to stay in their home in the 200 block of Hanover Street because of the painful memories it brought back, she said.

The widely seen video of the accident has caused people to make unfair judgments about Bolanos, said Bazan, who is in constant contact with the family and speaking on their behalf. The mother was not trying to commit suicide, and she was not racing the train for sport, she said.

Bazan said she believes her friend was rushing to beat the train because she did not want to wait for it. Bazan, who has lived in the area for 40 years, says she frequently sees cars quickly pass the crossing before the train comes.

"That train is known to hold people up, and she was probably in a hurry," Bazan said. "She thought she was going to make it. She made a terrible mistake."

Bolanos worked in the assembly line at a window company in Lansing. Donations can be made in her name to the Centier Bank branch in Hammond.